Bacteria constitute a large domain of prokaryotic micro-organisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a number of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals.
Bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. They inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs and radioactive waste, as well as the deep portions of the Earth’s crust.
Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. They are even known to have flourished in manned spacecraft.
Bacteria live in, and on, our bodies. They live in our mouths, and in our gut. In reality they are our oldest, closest friends. It could be said you don’t kill your friends.
Some new research has shown that killing bacteria can make you fat, ill and cause your children tobe asthmatic.
Of course, there are bacteria that should be killed. The most deadly were initially killed by the miracle of antibiotics. However, due to massive overuse of antibiotics, these bacteria are now highly resistant to our most powerful antibiotics.
It seems a dramatic shift in thinking is required. We have to stop thinking of all bacteria as the enemy.
As already mentioned, bacteria have been part of our lives since the beginning of time. We need to stop thinking of bacteria in the form of dirt, danger, death and decay.
A good example of this is the overuse of antibiotics which kill off the good bacteria in our gut, as well as whatever else they are being taken to kill off.
By the time we are three years old we have usually established 100 trillion bacteria living on us
In addition, using anti-bacterial spray around the home will kill off the unhealthy E coli bacteria sitting around on chopping boards. However, they will also kill the bacteria that protect small children from developing allergies such as psoriasis, eczema and asthma.
Our personal cleaning with harsh cleaners, toners, chemical laden shampoo and soaps can also kill off the protective friendly bacteria on our skin and scalp, allowing unfriendly ones to proliferate. Flaky, dry patches, areas of sensitivity and acne show where they are taking up residence. In fact, in the US, you can now buy spray-on bacteria to recolonise your skin with good bacteria!
New research has taken place thanks to the complex DNA-sequencing computer programmes developed for the Human Genome Project, which in 2012 completed the sequencing of all 22,000 human genes. This is the first time in history scientists have been able to study the tens of thousands of bacteria species that live on us. The ground-breaking studies are ongoing, but they began with hundreds of scientists from around the world studying bacteria samples taken from 17 different parts of the body, using 375 volunteers.
A brief history of our resident bacteria starts at birth when we collect the bacteria from our mothers during the journey down the birth canal. By the time we are three years old we have usually established 100 trillion bacteria living on us and this consists of anything from 2,000 to 10,000 different species, each with about ten times the number of genes that we have.
Just to pacify the slightly paranoid among us, most of these bacteria live in our gut, so no amount of cleaning or scrubbing is going to eliminate them. They are a vital part of our lives. That is why, when antibiotics kill off all the good bacteria, we have such intangible illnesses which the medical profession have trouble diagnosing.
The existence of gut bacteria has been known since the 1860s when the French chemist, Louis Pasteur was experimenting with what would later become known as pasteurisation. An interesting revelation from this new research is how around 60 per cent of the immune system also consists of the friendly bacteria we always knew were in our gut.
So antibiotics also have a profound effect on our immune system while doing the job of killing off the bad guys, it also kills off our immune and gut (good) bacteria. No wonder after a period of strong medication we are so susceptible to illness. Many medics now (as matter of course) prescribe probiotics to be taken after such medication in order to repopulate the gut (and the immune system it now seems) with good bacteria.
However, what happens if we don’t repopulate our bodies with good bacteria? Well, the putrefying or indigestible food particles, now loaded with bad bacteria, surge past the dormant, dead good bacteria, through our weakened, undefended gut walls and get into our blood, they can surprise and overwhelm colonies of other bacteria that are ill-equipped to fight them.
This can result in headaches, bad breath, lactose intolerance, candida albicans, irritable bowel syndrome, auto immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and, as I said earlier, other difficult to diagnose conditions.
Blaming a lack of friendly bacteria for obesity, too, may sound far-fetched. However, it appears that one particular bacterium, H. pylori, almost always present in the guts of healthy, slim people, has been found to be absent in the guts of very overweight people.
H. pylori was only discovered in 1983 (which shows how bacteriological research is still evolving in the present day). It can cause ulcers and many other more serious illnesses as one of my readers will attest to.
Next week we will look at how to nurture friendly bacteria.
kathryn@maltanet.net